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Sex offender who spent three months behind bars should only have been jailed for one

Appeal - Chelmsford Crown Court <i>(Image: Archant)</i>
Appeal - Chelmsford Crown Court (Image: Archant)

A SEX offender who has spent three months behind bars should only have been jailed for four weeks, an appeal has heard.

Mamun Miah, 32, was locked up after breaching notification requirements imposed upon him as part of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

Miah, of no fixed address but who previously lived in a Travelodge in Feering, was arrested on December 14 last year after failing to keep the police updated on his whereabouts.

The defendant then did not show up to Chelmsford police station one week later when he was required to.

He was subsequently sentenced to 24 weeks of immediate imprisonment in December after admitting breaching the court order.

But an appeal at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court on Friday heard the sentence handed out by a district judge was excessive.

Subagarey Pathmanathan, mitigating, said Miah could not afford to get to Chelmsford on the day and had attempted to notify the police of his absence.

Recorder Richard Conley said the case should not have been treated as “harmful” as it was in the original sentencing after hearing Ms Pathmanathan’s appeal.

However, he stressed Miah had one week to plan his trip and it was a “deliberate failure” to comply.

The recorder cut Miah’s sentence and substituted it to four weeks.